Down at the stretch: Lack of Crown contender hurts NBC

NBC saw a drop in its ratings for coverage of this year’s Belmont Stakes, which was the first time no horse was pursuing a Triple Crown in the race since 2001, NBC’s first year of Triple Crown coverage. Each of the three Triple Crown races scored down for NBC this year from 2004. Among individual markets, St. Louis posted the highest local-market rating for the June 11 Belmont Stakes and joined Louisville, Ky., Buffalo and Fort Myers, Fla., as the only four markets nationwide to rank in the top 10 for local-market ratings for each of the three races.

TRIPLE
CROWN RATINGS RECAP

Race
segment

Avg. rating/share
(change from prior year)

Year

Belmont
Stakes

Kentucky
Derby

Preakness
Stakes

2005

6.0/13* (NA)

9.0/22 (-3.2%)

6.3/16 (-18.2%)

2004

13.1/29 (+22.4%)

9.3/22 (+22.4%)

7.7/19 (+35.1%)

2003

10.7/25 (+27.4%)

7.6/20 (-8.4%)

5.7/15 (-12.3%)

2002

8.4/22 (+71.4%)

8.3/21 (-10.8%)

6.5/16 (+1.6%)

2001

4.9/14 (—)

9.3/24 (—)

6.4/17 (—)

Full
broadcast

Avg. rating/share
(change from prior year)

Year

Belmont
Stakes

Kentucky
Derby

Preakness
Stakes

2005

5.0/11* (NA)

7.3/18 (-1.4%)

5.1/13 (-16.4%)

2004

11.3/26 (+18.9%)

7.4/18 (+15.6%)

6.1/15 (+22.0%)

2003

9.5/23 (+25.0%)

6.4/17 (-9.9%)

5.0/13 (-12.3%)

2002

7.6/21 (+68.9%)

7.1/18 (-12.3%)

5.7/14 (+1.8%)

2001

4.5/13 (—)

8.1/21 (—)

5.6/16 (—)

TOP
MARKETS

Belmont Stakes

Kentucky Derby

Preakness Stakes

Rank

Market
(size^)

Avg.
rating/share

Avg.
rating/share (rank)

Avg.
rating/share (rank)

1

St. Louis (21)

11.6/23

13.5/29 (7t)

10.1/22 (11)

2

West Palm Beach, Fla.
(39)

11.1/20

12.6/26 (13)

12.1/25 (3)

3

Louisville, Ky. (50)

11.0/21

34.9/68 (1)

13.3/28 (2)

4

Philadelphia (4)

10.2/22

13.2/26 (11t)

11.4/24 (5)

5

New York (1)

9.9/21

10.8/24 (24)

7.3/18 (28t)

6

Knoxville, Tenn. (59)

9.7/17

14.1/28 (4t)

7.8/18 (25)

7

Hartford, Conn. (27)

9.6/19

13.2/27 (11t)

10.8/24 (7)

8

Jacksonville (52)

9.5/16

11.3/21 (21)

9.3/16 (15)

9

Buffalo (46)

9.0/20

13.4/29 (9t)

10.3/24 (9t)

10

Fort Myers, Fla. (68)

8.8/18

14.8/29 (2)

10.6/22 (8)

NA: Not
applicable

* Overnight
rating. Final rating was not available at Media Tracker press time.